Summer Job at Mountain Cabin


(Translated from Japanese by Saya)
This happened a few years ago. Together with my friend, I was searching for a summer job that paid well.

We found one job advertisement that stated, "Looking for someone to take care of a mountain cabin for one day." It paid 20,000 yens a day.
We phoned immediately but were told that "the job has been filled." We were disappointed, but the next week we again found the same advertisement in the magazine, so we called again.

This time we managed to secure a job interview at a family restaurant*1. The wage would be paid the morning after we had spent a night at the cabin.
We somehow decided to take on the job there and then, and were given a copy of a map to the mountain cabin.
And then the appointed day came.



The cabin was closer to a town than we had expected, and situated in the middle of privately owned woods.
There was a sign mounted on the wire fence that read "Private Property - No Trespassing," and beside the sign stood an elderly man.
"I believe you are Mr.__and Mr.__. I have been informed of your coming. Please come this way," he said and handed us the key to the cabin.
We walked for about 10 minutes before the cabin came into our sight.
We had imagined that it would be a proper log cabin, but it was just a cheap looking prefabricated house.

The only downside of the job was that there was no shower or bath and we had to bring food by ourselves, but we were quite happy with the high day wage.
The work only consisted of "cleaning up inside the cabin and watering the potted plants outside in the evening and in the morning."

The cabin didn't even have TV so we whiled away the hours by playing games on handheld consoles or playing card and board games.
It didn't have an air-conditioner either, and we had braced ourselves for a night of hellish heat, but it turned out to be surprisingly cool, perhaps because it was surrounded by so many trees.

Eventually the evening came, and after we had some rice balls*2 and bread from a convenience store for supper, we decided to sleep early, on the pipe-frame makeshift bed that had been prepared for us.

That night I had a very disturbing nightmare. I only remember part of it, but it went something like this: as I lay numerous hands kept groping and pushing my back and my body got torn to pieces by these hands in the end.
Next morning, I woke up with a terrible feeling and found my friend also looking haggard.

"What's wrong? I feel crap because of the weird dream I had."
"A dream? I also had a dream." He told me the content of his dream.
"What? We had the same dream!"

We both felt a little sick and were silent for sometime.
After a while, my friend muttered,
"Hey, the floor of this cabin...maybe it's my imagination, but doesn't it feel a bit wobbly?"

Now that he mentioned it, I felt like I was lying on a waterbed when I woke up.
I thought it was just an aftereffect of the dream, and hadn't thought much of it until then.....

"Let's look under the floor," my friend said.
I recalled how the prefabricated cabin was raised about 10 centimetres above ground and supported by poles at the corners.
I became curious too and agreed to investigate it with him.

We went outside. Even though it was morning, it was still about 5.00 am and the sky was dark.
My friend used the penlight he had on him to light up the space under the floor.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
"What's the matter!!?"
"ARMS!! ARMS, ARMS,ARMS, AHHHHHH!!"
"SHIT!!"

A large number of amputated arms were scattered around under the floor.
But we soon realised, by looking at their cut sections, that they were not real arms but arms of mannequins.
However, the freakiest thing was that each arm had a photo of a woman's face (polaroid) and a name written with a marker pen stuck on it.
I think there were about 50 or so arms there.
I touched one of those arms to make sure it was really a mannequin's arm.

"What the fuck....some crazy shit...shall we just go home?"
"Are you dumb? We'll wait until we get the money. If they ask us to do something else, then we run. "

We didn't feel like going back inside, so we just stood there zoned out for a long while.
When it was 7.00 am, the elderly man we had seen the day before came over to us.

"Good work, boys. Here is the wage... By the way, I have a suggestion - would you like to stay here for three more nights? Of course, I will pay you 60,000 yens for your extra work."
"Thank you, but I decline,"
We said in unison, and we started walking away as fast as we could.
When I looked back over my shoulder, I saw that the elderly man was now holding a mobile phone to his ear while glaring at us like he was really pissed off.

From then on, we never again saw the same job advertisement in the magazine. I suspect that the prefabricated cabin is no longer there too.

On the way back home, the friend said,
"Maybe that was some sort of an experiment."

I just nodded in agreement.

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Notes:
A famous Family restaurant, Gusto
*1 Family Restaurants (on the left) are popular casual dining restaurants which are found at every corner in Japan, and which provide a wide range of dishes at affordable price. (Five recommended Family Restaurants in Japan)
Onigiri
 *2 Rice Balls (on the right) - Onigiri in the original text.  Onigiri is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes and often wrapped in nori (seaweed). Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled plum (umeboshi), salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako, or any other salty or sour ingredient as a natural preservative. Most Japanese convenience stores stock their onigiri with various fillings and flavors. There are even specialized shops which only sell onigiri to take out. (Wikipedia)

Comments

CreanJinSung said…
If there was a job like that here, I would still take it even if creepy things like that happen. Not because I am a brave person but because experiences like that will keep boredom away as the narrator mentioned there is nothing to do there.
The story feels like it ended with questions though.
Unknown said…
180$ a night for cleaning some shady, rickety house is actually pretty nice. I mean, if you're still alive the day after.

Neat post as always, Saya-san! Looking forward for more.
Diogo Valverde said…
If I found some creepy looking voodoo like that under a house, I'm pretty sure my politeness and good manners would go out the window and I'd start cursing like a sailor, haha. Not to mention the racing thoughts such as "WHAT KIND OF PERSON AM I WORKING FOR AND WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO?!"
George V said…
Wow, nice and creepy!
Gabriel said…
The narrator was in quite a unnerving situation. I think I'd be horrified if I found the mannequin arms even if I didn't have that nightmare, lol! I can't help but think that it's either some sort of curse, or that it's a serial killer's trophy collection. Both options are equally terrifying. Really nice story, this one and Incubation gave me the chills.

This story reminded me that one night years ago, as I was laying in bed and browsing on my phone, I felt a cold hand pushing my back through the bedsheets. Needless to say, I jumped out of bed in panic. I checked the mattress and under the sheets but there was nothing there, so I like to think it was just my mind playing tricks on me... but I still had trouble sleeping that night haha.

Thanks as usual for your hard work, Saya! Take care. (btw, last time you said you hoped my country wasn't as hot as yours... sadly mine is even hotter, since I'm brazilian xD. But I don't like the heat either, thankfully it's winter right now)
CY said…
I would have no problems there since I do go and stay in my house in the middle of the forest very regularly anyway and since I do read this forum so I am not worry about creepy things either. I am more worry about running into mother bear along with her cubs than anything else.
Sydney Pacione said…
Honestly I would take this job. I’ve slept in creepier houses. I swear being broke is going to get me murdered some day LOL
@CreanJinSung I somehow prefer stories with an unclear ending. They leave a lot to the imagination! :D

@Unknown 24 July Oh! My blog readers are all so brave! Thank you dear for your comment!

@Diogo Haha XD I cannot imagine you swearing because you are always such a gentleman!

@George Vanmeter Thank you dear. That's what I would like to hear!

@Gabriel Oh nice! I believe I have quite a few Brazilian readers. And it's winter over there? I should move to your country right now. XD

Aww that's so scary having something like that happen to you while you sleep! I hope nothing like that ever happens to me!!

@CY Wow you have a house in the middle of a forest? That's so cool. Can I visit you in your house one day? XD

@Sydney Pacione Oh my. You stayed in even creepier places before? You don't say! Be safe, dear. You get me worried!

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR COMMENTS!!! :D
Nunu. said…
Maybe the arms were giving them massages. Only the massage were too rough for them. Ha. Me, I personally am not into massages.

I was a bit worried that they're going to accept the extra work for the money. But I'm very curious too what would happen if they do. Doesn't all horror movies start that way? :D Characters ignore red flags and then they get haunted one by one.

Maybe it was some kind of experiment. Because it's very suspect that there's no more adv for the cabin after that night.

Thank you Saya-san. Great story as always :).

-nunu-
Unknown said…
ahhh, it's so weird! i like this story a lot, its ambiguity makes it so creepy.

i think it's easy to think it's a serial killer, but... with the photos, names, and the dreams, i think the old man is trying to channel a bunch of spirits into the arms somehow, for whatever reason. the results so far are imperfect, so he tests it with part-timers.
I like this strory a lot too!:D Thank you for your comment!